Rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, March 11, 2019. A Vernon business owner was among those who died in the crash. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

Vernon father among 157 killed in Ethiopia plane crash

Vernon business owner Chunming Wang, 47, was among those aboard the Nairobi-bound flight that crashed within minutes of takeoff in Addis Ababa Sunday.

Wang, who has owned Big O Tires in Vernon since 2015, boarded the Boeing 737 Max 8 jet flight ET302 Sunday, headed to Nairobi, Kenya. The purpose of this trip was to gather his final paperwork to complete the immigration process in Canada. The final step for his family to become Canadian Permanent Residents required him to travel to Kenya, where Wang had once lived, and bring back a criminal background check.

He never made it. Wang was among the 157 individuals (18 of whom being Canadians) who didn’t survive.

His family is currently in Ethiopia and declined an interview at this time.